Group of votive terracottas

Minoan, about 2000-1700 BC
From Petsofa, Crete

Body parts dedicated with prayers for a cure

Among the votive offerings left by the Minoans at their peak
sanctuaries were various models of body-parts. This terracotta
group includes one half of a bisected male figure, two legs and an
arm. The purpose of the dedications was presumably either to pray
for a cure for the sick or wounded part of the body, or possibly to
thank the deity for such a cure. The bisected body may have been
intended to show the deity where the problem lay.

A thank-offering in the form of a marble relief of a leg, with
an inscription to the healing deities Asklepios and Hygeia, shows
how this sort of practice continues into later antiquity. Votive
plaques showing parts of the body are still dedicated with prayers
for health in Greek Orthodox churches today.

R. Higgins, The Greek Bronze Age (London, The British Museum Press, 1977)